


All the Things That Can’t Be Known

by Zantedeschieae



Category: Persona 2
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Table tennis is plot relevant, post-ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:16:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29780853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zantedeschieae/pseuds/Zantedeschieae
Summary: Much of upholding the law, after all, was less about bringing offenders to justice and more about preventing those offenses before they could happen in the first place, or at least before they could get worse. Thiswasn’tthe law, but the same principle should still apply.Ever since the other Tatsuya had gone back to his world, and this-Tatsuya had returned, and everything had been over with, Katsuya felt like no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t seem to catch up to where he was supposed to be. Nothing feltright, anymore. There was so much they didn’t know- sure, they’d defeated Nyarlathotep and the rumours weren’t coming true anymore, so they’d donesomething, but so much still hung in the balance.---Katsuya and his friends debate if Tatsuya can be allowed to meet his old friends again in this timeline.
Relationships: Implied Amano Maya/Suou Katsuya, Suou Katsuya & Suou Tatsuya
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	All the Things That Can’t Be Known

**Author's Note:**

> A follow-up to my work "Finding It Again", but it doesn't need to be read first.  
> Also you cannot convince me that the EP adults wouldn't play overly competitive table tennis, they're just somehow the sort.

Katsuya was outnumbered. 

“Until we can be sure what the possible consequences are, we can’t risk it!” He didn’t like raising his voice even that much, but it was beginning to seem like the only way to get the others to see reason. 

“So what?” Ulala shakes her head at him emphatically. “What are you going to do? Lock him inside forever? Hire someone to follow him around and stop him if he gets anywhere near his old friends? Yeah, right.” 

“If that’s what it takes-” 

“Katsuya.” Maya cuts him off- probably less to stop whatever he was about to say next and more to stop Ulala from arguing, Katsuya notes, given the way Ulala’s looking right now- and sets her drink down. “It’ll be alright. The rumours aren’t coming true anymore, so even if they remember a little bit, everything’ll be fine!”

“But…” Katsuya starts, then pauses to work out exactly what he’s trying to say. 

He takes a sip of his drink. “But we can’t be certain of that. And if there’s even the slightest risk that this will bring about the literal end of the world, we can’t possibly take that chance. No matter how…” _No matter how much it might mean to Tatsuya_ , he doesn’t say. He doesn’t need to finish the sentence- the others already know what he’s thinking. 

He knows he’s right. He knows that they can’t risk this, that they don’t have enough of an understanding of the situation to make those calls, that they can’t let this happen in good conscience. Much of upholding the law, after all, was less about bringing offenders to justice and more about preventing those offenses before they could happen in the first place, or at least before they could get worse. This _wasn’t_ the law, but the same principle should still apply. 

Ever since the other Tatsuya had gone back to his world, and this-Tatsuya had returned, and everything had been over with, Katsuya felt like no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t seem to catch up to where he was supposed to be. Nothing felt _right_ , anymore. There was so much they didn’t know- sure, they’d defeated Nyarlathotep and the rumours weren’t coming true anymore, so they’d done _something_ , but so much still hung in the balance. 

That was how these meetings had started. When This-Tatsuya woke up, he’d been full of questions they couldn’t answer. The four of them- himself, Maya, Ulala, Bao- _no, Kaoru, it’s hard to get that right_ \- had met up to design a cover story, something to keep Tatsuya from realizing that there was more to what was going on. 

But Tatsuya was nothing if not stubborn, and their original lies had been well thought-out but not entirely believed, and now Tatsuya was on a path to reunite with his old friends- or, rather, meet them for the first time- in this world. Katsuya had called the meeting, because they had to come up with some way to keep them apart, if they met each other they could very well start to remember and that _might_ end the world, but- 

“Ulala’s not wrong,” Kaoru says, with a tone like he’s talking to someone he thinks is very stupid and he wants them to know it. “You can’t stop the kid from meeting them if he wants to. ‘s his decision.”

“It’s _Tatsuya’s_ decision!?” Look, it was one thing that they disagreed with him, but _that_ ? That was preposterous! “How can it be Tatsuya’s decision? _We’re_ not informed enough to make this choice, so how’s he going to be? He doesn’t have any clue about any of this! That’s the point!” 

Kaoru glares at him, but Maya speaks up before he can say anything. “What I think Kaoru’s saying,” Maya says, smiling in Kaoru’s direction- and really, Maya’s smile can make anyone give in, even someone as stubborn as Kaoru, “is that you’re right. Tatsuya has no idea about any of this at all. For that reason, we can’t stop him from living his life. If he decides to meet our friends again, that’s up to him. We can’t stop him.” 

“But what if it is a problem? What if Tatsuya meets them and then remembers something and something happens! He won’t have any idea why! He-” 

Katsuya stops. All he can think of is his brother’s face, the look in other-side Tatsuya’s eyes when they first met, the weight he always seemed to carry and never knew how to put down-

“He can’t have that kind of responsibility! Wasn’t that we said to him? That we were the adults so we were the ones who should be carrying that, not him?” 

“We didn’t say that to him,” Ulala says. Her voice is uncharacteristically gentle. “We said that to the other him.” 

… Right. He has to keep them separate. He’s gotten better at that but… it’s hard. 

“You’re right. Of course,” Katsuya says, setting his drink down and putting his hands in his lap. Not because he’s trying to hide that they’re shaking. Because they’re _not_ shaking. _God why do I always get so worked up when we’re talking about Tatsuya-_

He forces himself to take a deep breath. _Think, Katsuya. What are they trying to say?_ _What are you trying to say_? 

He takes a second to answer those two questions. It’s a thing he’s been doing- a system he made after the hundredth time a conversation with Tatsuya fell apart because he kept saying the wrong thing. 

His friends wait patiently. They’re good at that, knowing when he wants to speak but can’t yet. 

“I…” He doesn’t feel like looking them in the eye, so he stares over Ulala’s shoulder at the window. “If it goes wrong and something does happen… Not- maybe not the end of the world again but even just… something smaller. Any consequence. Tatsuya’s going to be- he’s not going to know why it happened. He’s going to think he did something wrong.” He watches someone cross the street down below from the window. “I… I can’t let him carry that. Not again.” 

He hears them inhale sharply, _does that mean they understand, does that mean they get it, are they going to let me protect him now_ , and waits for someone to correct him, tell him that it won’t be ‘again’ because that was the other Tatsuya, because they’re not the same, _they’re not the same they’re not the same they’re not the same_ -

But no one does. There’s a long silence instead. Ulala stands up to refill her drink, Kaoru finishes off the last of his and hands her the glass-

Katsuya keeps staring out the window. Ulala walking by disrupts his view for a second but he doesn’t let his gaze waver, just keeps staring like she wasn’t there at all. 

He sees the three of them exchange a glance out of the corner of his eye. He knows what they’re thinking, knows he’s outnumbered, knows he’s _wrong_ , but-

But he can’t let this Tatsuya suffer. He can’t, not when he failed to protect the other Tatsuya, not when he’s still out there somewhere carrying all that weight he should have been there to help him with-

He knows he’s wrong. He knows he’s supposed to separate them, that they’re not the same person. But even if they’re not the same person, they’re both his brother! And he can’t- he can’t- he can’t- 

“Katsuya.” Maya’s voice is gentle and patient, more than it should be- “I understand. We all understand! And you’re not wrong to voice your concerns!” She’s giving him that smile again and it almost pulls his gaze from the window. “But I think sometimes... there’s a difference between wanting someone to be safe and wanting someone to be happy. And they’re not always the same thing, so sometimes we have to let the people we love go and trust that they’ll take care of themselves, too! No one’s responsible for any one other person.”

“Of course I’m responsible for him!” The words are out of Katsuya’s mouth before he can stop them, but he doesn’t stop himself from keeping going. “He doesn’t have anyone else!”

Maya smiles again. He reluctantly looks away from the window and at her instead. 

“I’m not saying he’s not your responsibility,” Maya says reassuringly. “But he’s also my responsibility. And Ulala’s. And Kaoru’s.”

Kaoru glares at her and mumbles “don’t drag me into this”, but he makes no effort to hide the fact that he doesn’t really mean it. 

“And,” Maya says, “he’s his own responsibility, too. I know Tatsuya doesn’t know what happened. But he knows more about living his own life than anyone else does.”

_Anyone_ . Katsuya knows what she means by that. _Anyone. More than himself. More than the other Tatsuya, too_. 

Because this Tatsuya isn’t the same as the other one. This Tatsuya is the one Katsuya took to festivals, and looked after when he was sick, and woke up early to make sure he got to school on time every single day for years. 

There was another him, probably, in the other world too. Another Katsuya. He didn’t really think about that much- it couldn’t matter, so why would he?- but now he finds himself wondering. That other Katsuya was the same as him, made all the same choices as him, but… but one day, ten years ago, that Katsuya left his brother alone at a festival long enough to make his own friends and he didn’t. Did one action change a person? Was that other Katsuya someone completely different than him, to have made that one choice differently? Was he _more_ Katsuya than he was, because that’s the choice he made without something influencing him? Did that even happen at all? Katsuya only assumes that whatever caused Tatsuya to not meet his friends this time around had something to do with him. It was so long ago, he doesn’t even remember- 

“Okay,” he hears himself say, and it takes him a second to realize that the voice he heard was his own and that it came from his own mouth. There was no other Katsuya speaking for him. That was his own choice. 

“Okay?” Ulala echoes, looking at him hopefully? “Does that mean- ?”

Katsuya nods. His hands are shaking. He doesn’t try to hide it- they all know anyway. 

“Tatsuya can meet his friends again. We can introduce them.” He sighs. Half his brain is screaming at him- _you can’t say that, you can’t let this happen, what if something happens to him, what if this goes wrong_ \- but… even if that’s a part of what he’s thinking, even if that’s a _majority_ of what he’s thinking, that doesn’t mean it’s all of him. 

All of him, every single corner of his mind, wants Tatsuya to be happy. He can say that for sure. 

And… and other-Tatsuya, his other brother… the only time the look in his eyes seemed to grow brighter, the only time the weight on his shoulders seemed to lift a little, was when he talked about his friends. Even when it pained him to think about them, even when he was terrified of them… well, Katsuya liked to think he could tell when his brother was happy. Even when it was hard to see. 

That Tatsuya was not _this_ Tatsuya. He knows that. But if there was any chance, any chance at all that these people could make this-Tatsuya happy? Then he had to let it happen. He had to let them all find each other again. Even if there’s so much they all don’t know, even if it could end badly, even if everything was so uncertain all of the time and he never really knew what was happening anymore and what it all could mean to the point that he couldn’t even _think_ straight sometimes-

Tatsuya should meet his friends again. Tatsuya should have people who care about him, and a lot of them, because- 

Katsuya looks up. Everyone’s smiling at him, even Kaoru. He smiles back, even if it feels as shaky as his hands are. 

Because that’s what all of it was for. Everything Katsuya and his friends fought for, everything Tatsuya and _his_ friends fought for before them, everything… everything other-Tatsuya gave up himself for- it was so that people could be there with the people they loved. 

“Well, we’ve got a unanimous agreement then,” Kaoru says. 

Maya pumps her fist into the air. “Yep! I knew we’d figure it out! We’re all amazing, guys!”

Ulala stands up. “I think this calls for another drink,” she says with a giggle. “Ooh, and then I want a table tennis rematch, Ma-ya. I’ll beat you this time for sure!” 

And Maya was right. He did have to trust that everyone would look after Tatsuya, and that Tatsuya would look after himself. 

He could trust them. He… he could trust himself, too, or whatever version of himself there was, in that other world. Other-Katsuya could look after him now. 

He just had to do the best he could. Not just for Tatsuya, this-Tatsuya, but for everyone. For Maya and Ulala and Kaoru, for Tatsuya’s friends- and for himself, too, he supposes, though that thought seems strangely foreign. 

Somewhere out there, was other-Tatsuya thinking the same thing? Was he learning to trust the people around him again, too? Maybe that was all any of them could do. 

Maya’s laughter rings out through the house, followed by Ulala yelling- no doubt Maya had won yet another match, letting them buy that table tennis set had been a mistake- and Katsuya finds himself smiling, too, and then he’s getting up to watch them in the inevitable rematch, and when he does Maya smiles at him and-

And he realizes, with certainty, that he had been right to give in. What right did he have to take this away from Tatsuya? Katsuya couldn’t have gotten this far, couldn’t have gotten anywhere, without his friends by his side. This-Tatsuya deserved that, too. 

He finds himself smiling at Ulala’s utter elation when she finally scores a point against Maya, and he thinks about the last time he saw Tatsuya smile, and decides, right then and there, that he’ll do everything he possibly can to make him smile like that more. Even if it means risks, even if it means dealing with things they don’t understand. 

He trusts that, if something goes wrong, they’ll figure it out. 

That’s all anyone can do, after all. 


End file.
